Today during second period, dogs trained to search and signal for drugs were taken into six randomly selected classrooms in an effort to crack down on students carrying drugs to school.

The teachers whose classrooms were searched are: Cameron Crouch, Ryan Duston, Dan Fitz-Patrick, Heather Ferris, Jennifer Kindred and Kristen Pelfrey.

Not everyone the dogs signaled at were found to have drugs in their belongings, and those students were therefore not punished.

Board policy allows for such searches, saying “as necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of students and staff, school officials may search students, their property and/or district property under their control, and may seize illegal, unsafe and prohibited items.”

The policy also specifically deals with the issue of drug-detection dogs and says that they are allowed to sniff the air around lockers, desks, or vehicles on district properties or at district-sponsored events. They are not, however, allowed to sniff within the close proximity of any students.

According to assistant principal Katie Tedford, the next time drug-detection dogs are on campus, the classroom selection will be equally as random as all of the classrooms searched today will be added back into the pool, meaning the same classroom number may be drawn randomly again for searches.